The term Jack-o’-the Lantern referred to ignis fatuus, lights that would appear over swampy marshes that had no apparent cause. Will-0′-the Wisp is another folk term used to describe these lights. The eponymous “Jack” in Jack-o’-the-Lantern was said to be an 18th century blacksmith nobody liked because he was mean-spirited. It was said that Jack tricked the Devil and was given an ember straight out of hell to light his lantern as he wanders the earth alone for all of eternity.
While there are some 19th century stories of Irish folks carving turnips and other root vegetables, the intermingling of the Jack-o’-the Lantern and the carving of pumpkins happened after many Irish immigrated to the United States. Upon doing so, they adopted many of their folk traditions to US customs surrounding the harvest. This included replacing carved turnips and beets with the now ubiquitous pumpkin, and the modern-day Jack-o-Lantern was born.
Carving pumpkins isn’t the only Halloween tradition to come out of Europe. Bobbing for apples, a rarer party game today than it was in the past, is also inspired by European customs. Before the apples were dumped into a tub of water, girls would mark one with a symbol. The men would then bob for apples and, depending on which apple they got, their future coupling was foretold. As time went on, the idea of bobbing for apples and putting one’s mouth where the mouths of strangers had recently been became a little gross and the game has fallen off over time.
Bobbing for apples was one way that past generations used apples for divination purposes. – here is another. In the fall, residents of New England would peel apples to make apple butter to put up before winter. It’s said that unmarried women and girls at the time would try to peel the apple in one long strip, throw it over their shoulder, and the letter it formed on the ground would indicate the first initial of their future love.
